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Lazy?

Earlier this morning I read a summary of a poll conducted on behalf of Workplace Options, a Raleigh, N.C.-based consulting firm. According to the study, 77 percent of workers believe that the millennial generation has a different attitude toward workplace responsibility than other age groups. "Furthermore," writes Ely Portillo, "68 percent of respondents said they think millennial workers are less motivated to take on responsibility and produce quality work than others."

I work with a team of mostly young people. They are not lazy. They are different than my friends and I were when we entered the workforce 30 or so years ago.

I've noticed that young people entering the workforce are more empowered and technologically savvy than any other generation I'm aware of. They've been taught since they were small children not to accept everything they're told simply because it comes from someone in autority and they don't want to spend time doing mindless things that appear to them to be a waste of time. What's more they've been successfully collaborating together in teams since Elementary School; and are native to the technologies we are trying to leverage to make the workforce more productive.

It's easy for us grey-hairs to misinterpret their desire to avoid what they consider "busy work" as being lazy, but I'm convinced this is not the case. On the contrary, I find them to be very motivated. On those rare occasions when my older associates and I talk about the younger people on the team, we talk about how their passion and energy is contagious. In fact, I think we universally agree that our younger colleagues keep us on top of our game. The luxury of sitting back and resting on our laurels just isn't an option.

Saying that, I don't think they are any smarter or more capable than any of their predecessors, however the paradigm they work with is based upon a mental model that allows them to take the work of previous generations and extend it in ways us old fogies might not recognize because our mental models don't make the connection. We should be looking for ways to give them opportunities to make leaps forward based upon their mental models.

Calling this generation "lazy" or "entitled" is nothing new—in fact it's almost become too easy and cliche to be meaningful anymore. "They don't want to pay their dues," they argue. That might be true, but I felt that way too when I entered the workforce. Thankfully there were senior members of the team who were willing to mentor me and help me find my place. In stead of complaining about how they are different, we should be doing the same thing.

I have been blown away by what the members of my team are able to accomplish when they are given the opportunity to do so. There's a lot we can learn from our younger colleagues, but I think we need to take a fresh look at how we interactwith them. Here are a couple of suggestions:

Don't try to fit a square peg in a round hole: I don't believe a heavy-handed command-and-control management approach ever really worked, but it will not work with this generation. When working with younger colleagues, be prepared to explain why you're asking them to do what you're asking them to do. Nobody wants to waste time, and these people just won't. They want to contribute to something meaningful and don't want to waste time doing anything that could be construed as "busy work."

Empower them to contribute at a higher level: Once they understand the bigger picture, it adds context to what they are doing and enables them to step up, take ownership and contribute at a higher level. We should be thinking less about controlling the chaos and more about leveraging their unique skill sets to make our organizations stronger and more capable.

Regular feedback is critical: These young people have been receiving a constant stream of feedback since they were old enough for it to "register." What's more, if their adoption of social media has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that they respond very well to positive feedback. In my opinion, taking queues from social media makes sense. We need to create a workplace where everyone's accomplishments are transparent and recognized. Doing this will engage this generation within our organizations and ultimately make them more profitable and successful.

I sometimes take heat for suggesting that we adapt how we lead people to the rising generation. "Ty, you're pandering to the millennials," they say. I disagree. Our responsibility as leaders is to adapt our leadership and communication styles to maximize the value of the workforce. Otherwise, we would still be working under the lash and drawing pictures on cave walls with rocks.

I suggest it's time for us to stop complaining about the "lazy" generation and rethink how we interact with them, redesign the tools we give them to help them better understand and organize their work and leverage their unique skills to make our organizations better.